exploration of the immediate area

Class in Japan has officially begun~!

Our professor is rather lenient and more interested in our understanding and enjoyment of the subjects of the course opposed to how much of a challenge he can make the class for us, which I sincerely enjoy. After our first class was let out a little early, we all, including Professor Thomas, walked over to Cocos and filled up a table for twelve. The JCMU staff assigned us discount stamp cards for eating at Cocos, so we will be getting reimbursed 300 yen (a little under $3) per meal that we have in the restaurant. Convenient? Yes. But uh, I am not planning eating there often. I'd rather spend my cash on FUN, not food if I can help it.

FOOD LIKE THIS! (our first little dinner in the apartment)

The JCMU ID cards that were assigned to us along with the discount card for Cocos are turning out to be truly convenient, however. It turns out that there is a shuttle bus that goes from the hotel that we stayed at the first night here in Japan that is right next door to campus to the Hikone Train Station in downtown Hikone. That bus is free for JCMU students, apparently, so all we have to do is flash our JCMU ID and we've got a ride into the city. So after lunching together as a class, we all decided that it would be a great time to try that bus out, since it was still raining and biking was out of the question. We threw on our rain gear as fast as we could, grabbed umbrellas and regrouped before walking over to the Hikone View Hotel.

Now, the Japanese transportation systems differ a lot from American ones. In America, if something is scheduled for 6:25, you know that if you get there at 6:27 you're in the clear and can still make the ride. Maybe even at 6:30 still you can squeak in.

That is not the case here.

The first bus for downtown Hikone left without us because although we were on our way to the stop and only a minute or so away, it was the scheduled time for departure and that bus was not about to stop.

So Ashley and I spent the hour or so until the next bus was scheduled to take misty pictures around Lake Biwa and to ruin our shoes (or at least, I seemed to really try to ruin mine in any case). Then when the next bus arrived, we all jumped aboard. Luckily, we had Lauren with us. She is a returning JCMU student and immediately informed us that we were headed in the wrong direction. We had read the bus schedule wrong, apparently, and were headed instead for Miabara station which was the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. It was a problem easily solved, however, and we took a short train trip to Hikone station and were just where we wanted to be.

Lauren not only taught us how to buy train tickets (and understand what the heck we were doing) but showed us all around Hikone's shopping center, Al Plaza as well. 

This "plaza" was a six story mall of sorts, with a wide selection of women's and men's clothing, and a hyaku yen shop (dollar store but better) as well as a full size grocery in the basement! We didn't have a ton of time to explore it/shop because of the bus and train mix up, but everyone left extremely happy if I may say so myself (Ashley and I were finally able to buy cooking ingredients! As well as some pokemon ramune). 

On our way home it seemed as if we just weren't having luck with the buses at all. For some reason, the bus schedule that JCMU gave us was veryyyy outdated and we waiting an hour in the rain for a bus back to school. This was alright though and gave some people in our group time to go back and grab an item they saw here or there that they wanted, and Ashley and I ran into a little honya (book store) and bought another and hopefully better fashion magazine.

By the time we got home we were all exhausted and wet and hadn't even touched our homework yet.

But I'd like to think it was still a very good day.